What does it take to build a world-class French restauraunt? What if the staff is almost entirely men and women just out of prison? What if most have never cooked or served before, and have barely two months to learn their trade? Knife Skills follows the hectic launch of Edwins restaurant in Cleveland. In this improbable setting, with its mouth-watering dishes and its arcane French vocabulary, we discover the challenges of men and women finding their way after their release. We come to know three trainees intimately, as well as the restaurant’s founder, who is also dogged by his past. These men and women all have something to prove, and all struggle to launch new lives, an endeavor as pressured and perilous as the ambitious restaurant launch of which they are a part. . .

Sounds like a typical well-seasoned tagline for a film, huh?

But what takes a thought to a feeling isA N E X P E R I ENCE

A couple of friends of ours pitched us going to an event that would show KNIFE SKILLS in Medina this past week, where a copy of EDWINS has just opened in Medina called, SERENITE

When I shook hands with Brandon Chrostowski (he greeted us all at the door inside of the theater) before the Oscar nominated Documentary began, it immediately felt more personal than professional. It didn’t take very long during this short film to figure out. . .to actually be inspired and slightly embarrassed that what Brandon is actually

In one way or another we not only have all been imprisoned but are still behind bars of unlocked cells

WE EACH POSSESS IN US THE CAPACITY TO NOT JUST UNLOCK THE CELL DOORS OF OTHERS BUT ACTUALLY TAKE THOSE VERY DOORS(real and imagined)
from their very hinges. . .

No one deserves a second chance. . .

N O O N E. . .

So much as the countless ones very much needed after those very second, third, fourth, forty-PLUS c h a n c e s. . .

This evening wasn’t so much of an opportunity to GIVE so much as one to RECEIVE and more. . .not a night to contribute or to allow for THOSE CHANCES so much as a vulnerable MOMENT
TO BE THAT CHANCE
for Another. . .
And make no mistake about your RESERVATIONS ~~it’ll not just COST YOU~~it’ll literally change you forever

Sometimes the most expensive thing we can ever do, isn’t to write a sizable check(donation)

It’s not even to Care or be Compassionate

B U T
to Care
to be Compassionate
to be Kind
to be Forgiving O N G O I N G

especially when it’s less than perfect

NO GUARANTEES

and more:

N O R E S E R V A T I O N S

You up for that DISH?

If you read this far and still interested,

FEEL FREE
(literally)
To view the truly inspiring/motivating film

“Knife Skills” an Academy Award nomination in the category of Documentary Short Subject.

‘Mind-Reading’ Headset Lets You

Just a couple of weeks ago, By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer for LIVE SCIENCE told us about this amazing mind-reading headset. .

The AlterEgo headset being developed at MIT would allow users to communicate with their devices completely hands- and voice-free.

Credit: Lorrie Lejeune/MIT

Regardless of whether your mouth is moving right now, you are talking to yourself.

As you read these words, the muscles in your larynx, jaw and face are fluttering with quick, imperceptible movements, sounding out the words so you can actually “hear” them in your head. This kind of silent speech is called “subvocalization,” and unless you’re a speed-reader who has trained yourself out of this habit, you’re doing it all day, every time you read or even imagine a word.

According to a statement from the MIT Media Lab, the device would allow users to send silent commands to the headset simply by thinking of a word. A neural network would translate the muscle movements to speech and do the user’s bidding — totally hands- and voice-free.

“The motivation for this was to build an IA device — an intelligence-augmentationdevice,” Arnav Kapur, a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab and lead author of a paper describing the device, said in the statement. “Our idea was: Could we have a computing platform that’s more internal, that melds human and machine in some ways and that feels like an internal extension of our own cognition?”

A promotional video accompanying the news release shows a student (Kapur) going about his daily routine while wearing the headset, using silent commands to navigate through a TV menu, check the time, tally up prices in the supermarket and, apparently, cheat at the game Go. His opponent is none the wiser.

So, how does it work?

Let’s say you want to ask AlterEgo what time it is. First, you think the word “time.” As you do, muscles in your face and jaw make micro-movements to sound out the word in your head. Electrodes on the underside of the AlterEgo headset press against your face and record these movements, then transmit them to an external computer via Bluetooth. A neural network processes these signals the same way a speech-to-text program might, and responds by telling you the time — “10:45.”

In another twist, AlterEgo includes no earbuds. Instead, a pair of “bone conductionheadphones” resting against your head sends vibrations through your facial bones into your inner ear, effectively letting you hear AlterEgo’s responses inside your head. The effect is a completely silent conversation between you and your computer — no need to pull out a phone or laptop.

An early test of the technology showed promising results, MIT said. In a small study, 10 volunteers read a list of 750 randomly ordered numerical digits to themselves while wearing AlterEgo headsets. According to the researchers, AlterEgo correctly interpreted which digits the participants were reading with an average accuracy of 92 percent. (For comparison, Google’s microphone-based speech-to-text translation service has an accuracy of about 95 percent, according to Recode.)

“We basically can’t live without our cellphones, our digital devices,” said Pattie Maes, an MIT professor and the paper’s senior author. “But at the moment, the use of those devices is very disruptive…. My students and I have for a very long time been experimenting with new form factors and new types of experience that enable people to still benefit from all the wonderful knowledge and services that these devices give us, but do it in a way that lets them remain in the present.”

The new paper describing the device was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s ACM Intelligent User Interface conference in March, and has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal.

It took place this past Saturday and although the crowd wasn’t overwhelming we had two types of blessings. . .

The first place around 8:45 in the morning for a group of women who were getting ready to make a journey together and I blessed about 20 bikes and their riders. . .

Pancakes and coffee were being served and about 11 o’clock I was able to bless about a 80 more bikes and their riders

and a little girl and her helmet. . .

A cross that was given to a man by a son who died

A Rosary

A dog named, Mr Hanks

As we began I gave a short little meditation talking about how life really isn’t so much a destination as it is a journey and our best adventures are those trips that have no GPS and take us to places we never even planned or dreamed but arrived with stories to share, anyway. . .

I told them as I was going to come to each of their bikes and give them

MY T W O C E N T S. . .

literally:

I had a Baptismal Fount that I had filled with pennies and I reminded them that as much as I was going to give them my two cents they would understand that by receiving these two-not-so-priceless-penniesof their own choosing,

it would serve as a gentle reminder THEY WOULD NEVER BE PENNILESS and to always keep THEIR C E N T S (sense) about them in a world, where on the road, so many others often don’t. . .

The sun was warm.
The sky was blue.
The air was calm.
And I sent each on their way with the admonition to:

KEEP THE SHINY SIDE UP

It was a great day. . .

I got to listen to quite a few people’s bike adventures
as I asked each just how many miles they had on their bikes
and assuring them as a blessing

THAT THEIR BEST MILES WERE THOSE THEY’VE YET TO TRAVEL

I was once again affirmed of what I firmly believe
that everyone has a story to tell that desperately needs to be told
but even more so needs to be heard. . .

I was honored to hear about some of their trips and adventures and the one still yet to be taken. . .

The day after, Mike Stevens, the owner of Lake Erie Harley Davidson sent me the following email, thanking me for my time and securing May 18, 2019 for the nextBIKE BLESSING. . .

He also included the following email from one who had just gotten his bike Blessed:

After Bike blessing—-we had family over for a get together. When everyone left my brother n law Russ and I were talking and I told him about the blessing and gave him 1 cent —–he thought that was great. We decided to go to Valley City to get a burger. We took separate cars . Lisa and I were following Russ and his girlfriend down 252 . We were behind him about fifty feet. He was going down the steep hill on 252. I heard a loud sound and slammed on the brakes in time to avoid a truck in my lane which we avoided –it hit a tree next to us. I jumped out of the car and looked down the hill and saw 100 feet of car parts all over the road –Russ my brother in law was hit by the truck. Wheels off the truck and his car were laying in the road. I noticed Russ’s car at the bottom of the hill off the road and into a tree. Ran down the hill to the car —car was destroyed. Was able to get the door open and get them out . Russ ‘s girlfriend was hurt and Russ was cut up but no stay in hospital . When we were taking them home Russ thanked me for 1cent…

MAGICALLY MONEY. . .

makes C E N T S(s e n s e)

Quite a special TWO CENTS worth, huh?

I made it clear to Mike that I neither had a special powers

nor could distribute them

I mean. . .

R E A L L Y. . .

But I also assured him

that what he did THAT morning

by bringing people together

from all walks of life

with a myriad of their own personal TWO CENT life stories

and put me in a place where I had the honor to hear

T H O S E S T O R I E S

especially one very life-changing one. . .

was the

ABRACADABRA MAGICALLY MIRACLE MOMENT

Pssssssssssssssbsssst of the Day:

We are ALL a part of those Magical Moments
(more than we notice or have the CENTS (sense)to recognize)

Locks that required no keys are now opened by the sound of a person’s voice. A Compact unit with a built-in microphone that you can’t even begin to see, and almost not even imagine, is installed near the door. The unit is programmed to respond only to the owner’s voice. To open the lock, the person punches in the ID number and says a password. In less than a blink of the eye, the unit determines whether the voice is the right one, and if it is…

OPENS THE DOOR–Abracadabra!

What makes this sort of lock workable and secure is that people’s voices are as individual as fingerprints. No one trying to imitate the owners voice will be able to fool the unit, because individual voice patterns just cannot be duplicated. It also won’t respond to a recording; it can distinguish a real voice from a recorded one.

Real Sci-fy stuff, huh?

Here’s the REALdeal. . .

the person whose voice sounds differently because of a cold or the like, is in no danger of being locked out. Distinctive voice patterns remain.

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My name is Chuck Behrens, serving others to help others serve. I value your time and take your readership seriously. Follow along and together lets become Expert Members of Triple A: Accessible. Accountable. Available.